Tag Archives: Navy

You’re in The Navy Now~Part 2

31 Jul

A Slice of Life

Bill Lites

Bill

Back home in Albuquerque, I discovered Boot Camp, the “Summer Cruise” I had just endured was actually going to be credited to my 1956 record, and I was now eligible to go for my 1957 “Summer Cruise” if I so elected.  Since I f1elt like having to go to boot camp had cheated me out of a cruise on a “real ship,” and I was bored with those reserve meetings, I ask my company commander for orders to go on a “real summer cruise” and he reluctantly agreed.  This time I was assigned to the destroyer USS Gurke (DD-783) out of San Diego.

At first sight, tied up alongside the pier, I thought the Gurke was a small ship, but it didn’t take me long to find out that it was plenty big enough, especially, when it came to swabbing decks and painting bulkheads.  The 2regular Navy sailors looked down on us Reserve pukes, so it was no big revelation to learn that was why we got so many of the grunt jobs.

The ship’s regular routine while I was onboard, was five days of maneuvers training at sea and back to port for the weekend.  I was surprised to find that this landlubber got his “sea legs” right away and didn’t get seasick like many of the other reservists, but I actually enjoyed the rolling/pitching motion of the ship.  That is, until on liberty that first weekend, while walking through San Diego, the streets were 3rolling/pitching like the ship had been doing all week.  Then, when I stopped in a tattoo parlor with a friend, and almost lost my dinner because of the sights/smells and the moving room.

I discovered that in the Navy, the smaller the ship the better the food, because there are fewer men to cook for.  The food on the Gurke was great, and I looked forward to every meal.  However, that wasn’t the case with some of the other reservists.  I thought we were lucky during this cruise, because the areas of the ocean we did our maneuvers in were 4relatively calm most of the time.  But, there were others who were sea sick from the moment we left the dock, and never did get over it until they were back on dry land.

After the two-week cruise on the USS Gurke, it was back to Albuquerque and those boring monthly reserve meetings, where I finally realized I was just going to have to bite the bullet and get this Navy thing over with.  The contract I had signed up for was two years of active service and four years of reserve service.  So I went to my company commander and requested orders for active service.  He said NO!  What was this?  Weren’t we in the same Navy?  Then I realized he probably got points or something, for each person in his unit.  But, I was determined, and went several levels over his head, and wrote to the Commandant of what was then the 11th Naval District, and requested active service.  Would you believe, I had my orders for active service within two weeks, and boy, was my company commander mad!  However, to get this “trouble maker” out of his district, the Commandant had cut my orders to report to the Great Lakes Naval Recruit Training Center in Illinois, outside Chicago.  The next thing I knew, I was on a train headed East.

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—–To Be Continued—–

 

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You’re in the Navy Now~Part 1

24 Jul


A Slice of Life

Bill Lites

No. 7 Blogger

No. 7 Blogger

1When I was a senior in high school my best friend Bud talked me into joining the U.S. Navy Reserve.  The idea behind this brilliant move was to get the attention of girls.  You see, we lived in Albuquerque, New Mexico where there were two U.S. Air Force bases and we had grown up seeing guys in Air Force uniforms everywhere we went.So, we figured, what better way to attract the attention of girls than to be able to drive up and down Central Avenue dressed up in those unusual Navy uniforms once a month.  Of course, once we joined up and got those uniforms, things didn’t actually turn out the way we planned.

Back then there was none of this “I don’t like this, I want out” business.  Once you 2signed up, you were in for the duration.  The worse thing was, by the time we got out of our evening meetings and got to the drive-in, most of the girls had already been picked up by some Air Force guy, or gone home to do their homework.

The first few monthly meetings were a real adjustment for me.  Each meeting 3started with us having to report to the reserve unit doctor for a series of shots.  We were inoculated against every disease known to man, so the Navy could send us anywhere in the world and we would be protected.  I couldn’t believe how many shots that entailed.

While we were still stinging from the shots, it was “All personnel report to the parade ground for close order 4drill.”  That was the “grinder” where they taught how to salute every officer we ever encountered, how to handle our M1 rifle, march in straight lines, all the while looking smart so our company commander would look good to any big shots during divisional presentations.

Each year all reservists were required to participate in a “Summer Cruise.”  That sounded like fun, until I discovered the Summer Cruise for all first time reservists was “Boot Camp” at the U.S. Naval Training Center in San Diego.  I don’t think the drill instructors were very happy to see us by the way they treated us, but I was glad to see reservists from other states there, and to know I wasn’t the only one having to go through all this degrading punishment.

Even though I had worked at various jobs since I was fourteen, nothing of those 5had prepared me for the challenges of boot camp.  We did learn some interesting things while at boot camp, like how to tie every knot the Navy had used since the beginning of time, and survival swimming, a must for use after the ship you are on is torpedoed at sea and sinks, and all you have left to make a float with is your trousers.

Then there was how to properly fight those scary shipboard compartment fires with nothing but water, and the one I disliked the most, the gas mask training.  6They have you put on a gas mask, walk you into a building full of tear gas, and let you stand there to see how effective the mask is.  Then, they tell you to remove your mask.  Of 7course, you hold your breath as long as you can, but you don’t think to close your eyes.  The next thing you know, your eyes are burning like crazy and you have to breath, and that’s when you get the full force of what that gas can do to a person.  Let me tell you, that episode made a real believer out of me, because that tear gas they use is really nasty stuff.

But, mostly it was a 24-hour test to see if you could keep up with marching 8everywhere we went, exercising with our rifles until we thought our arms would fall off, drill until we thought we would wear the soles off our shoes, clean the barrack until a bug wouldn’t dare show it’s face in the place, and learn how to wash our clothes by hand with a bar of Ivory soap.

Luckily it only lasted two weeks.  Then, when it was over, I actually felt cheated that the only ship I had been on through all that, was the USS Recruit (TDE-1), which turned out to be a giant “ship simulator” sitting in the middle of one of the training center parade grounds.

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—–To Be Continued—–

 

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My First Real Cruise

3 Oct

A Slice of Life

 Bill Lites

 

After joining the NROTC in Albuquerque, NM at age 17, I spent the first six months going to weekly indoctrination/training  meetings, getting medical checks, shots of all kinds, and generally being bored with the whole thing.

When it came time for what the Navy called an annual Summer Cruise, my first “Cruise” was two weeks of Boot Camp (Basic Training) at the San Diego Naval Training Station.    

We learned many cool things, like rescue swimming, fire fighting and gas mask training, but it was mostly two weeks of long days and hard work.

In those days, when you signed up for any branch of the military, you were in for “The Duration”.  None of this, “Oh I made a mistake and want out” stuff went on then.  Well, it seems, I had gone to Boot Camp during the Navy’s 1956 fiscal year, and now that year had ended and we were into the 1957 fiscal year. So, I asked my Company Commander if I could take my 1957 Summer Cruise now instead of waiting till next summer.  He was agreeable to that idea and cut me a set of orders for my first “real” Summer Cruise on the USS Gurke (DD 783) out of San Diego.

I was thrilled and amazed when I first went aboard that ship, to find that there were other reservists like me on board.  At first glance, there didn’t seem to be room to do anything, as every available inch seemed to be packed with essential equipment.  Of course, I found out real quick how much empty space there really was, once a mop or a paintbrush was put in my hands.

 

 

 

 

I discovered in the Navy, the smaller the ship the better the food because there are fewer men to cook for.  The food was great on the Gurke, and I looked forward to every meal.  However, that wasn’t the case with some.  I thought we were lucky during this cruise, because the areas of the ocean we did our maneuvers in was very calm most of the time, so I got my sea legs quickly.  But, there were others who were sea sick from the moment we left the dock, and never did get over it.  That was really bad for them, because we stayed out at sea for week at a time and only came back to San Diego for the weekends.

 

I had never thought I would enjoy sea duty, but the two weeks we were at sea ended up being a fun trip for me.  As it turned out, I spent almost two years at sea going around the world on ships and never did get seasick.  That included crossing the North Atlantic in a huge storm, which had waves coming up over the bow of the aircraft carrier I was on.

 

But I did almost get “seasick” after the second week at sea on the Gurke. When I walked down the streets of San Diego the whole city seemed to be rocking back and forth.  That along with the sights and smells of a tattoo parlor I went into with a friend, nearly cost me my dinner that first night on liberty.

 

Scripture:  Psalm 107:29 (English Standard Version)

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